Orchard heater



June 24, 1969 D; G HILL 3,451,387

ORCHARD HEATER Filed Feb. 8. 1968 Sheet of .2

DARYL G. HILL INVENTOR.

ATTORNEYS D. G. HILL ORCHARD HEATER June 24, 1969 Sheet 3 of2 Filed Feb. 8, 1968 FIG .4

FlG 5 FlG 7 DARYL G. HILL I N V E NTOR.

ATTORNEYS United States Patent 3,451,387 ORCHARD HEATER Daryl G. Hill, 523 N. 24th Ave., Yakima, Wash. 98901 Continuation-impart of application Ser. No. 576,057, Aug. 30, 1966. This application Feb. 8, 1968, Ser. No. 704,167

Int. Cl. A01g 13/06; F24c 3/04 US. Cl. 126-595 3 Claims ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE The present application is a continuation-in-part of my application for Letters Patent of the United States filed Aug. 30, 1966, Ser. No. 576,057 and now abandoned.

The invention relates to heaters burning carbonaceous fuel, and particularly to heaters for use in orchards.

The object of the invention is to provide a heater which will capture and usefully apply very nearly the entire heat generated from a combustible mixture of carbonaceous fuel and air.

This and other more particular objects and advantages of the invention will appear and be understood in the course of the following description and claims, the invention consisting in the novel construction and in the adaptation and combination of parts hereinafter described and claimed.

In the accompanying drawings:

FIGURE 1 is a perspective view of a fragmentary part of an orchard-heating system including heaters constructed to embody preferred teachings of the present invention.

FIG. 2 is a fragmentary longitudinal vertical sectional view thereof drawn to an enlarged scale on line 2-2 of FIG. 1.

FIG. 3 is a fragmentary top plan view illustrating a heater of somewhat modified construction, the scale being reduced from that of FIG. 2.

FIG. 4 is a fragmentary longitudinal vertical sectional view on line 4-4 of FIG. 3.

FIG. 5 is a somewhat schematic fragmentary top plan view showing an indicative layout of the system performing its intended function in an orchard.

FIGURE 6 is an end elevational view showing the manher in which burners for the system, and fuel-supply hoses therefor, can be easily wound upon a spool for convenient storage when the system is not in use; and

FIG. 7 is an enlarged-scale detail sectional view of one of the burner nozzles.

In the heaters of the present invention there is provided a flue pipe of moderate diameter and substantial length, say 5 /2 inches and 5 feet in the respective instance. Characteristics salient to the invention are (1) that the pipe be composed of a material, sheet metal by preference, which will readily conduct and radiate heat, (2) that it be disposed horizontally, and (3) that there be no openings other than at the extreme ends. These end openings are full size, and which is to say that their diameter is the same as that of the pipe. Combustion of a suitable cleanburning carbonaceous fuel such as propane or butane occurs at the front end of the pipe. Spent gases of combustion, having travelled the length of the pipe and dissipated their heat of combustion thereto, escape through the back end opening.

In the preferred and first-described embodiment of FIGS. 1 and 2, the flue pipe is denoted \by the numeral 10 and its front end opening by 11.

There is spot-welded or otherwise suitably secured to the inside wall of the pipe at its front end a divider 12 which partitions the interior for a short part of the length into upper and lower throats both open to the atmosphere at the front end and both feeding into the pipe proper at the rear end. The divider has an inverted-U shape in cross section and has the top wall rather steeply sloped in an inward direction. This gives to the lower throat 13 a progressive expansion and to the upper throat 14 a progressive contraction, inwardly considered. The two throats 13 and 14 perform the function of a combustion throat and a ventura throat, respectively.

The nozzle 15 of a burner projects through the front opening of the pipe into the combustion throat, being pointed upwardly therein parallel or approximately parallel withthe sloping wall of the partitioning shield 12. The products of combustion commingle with the accelerated stream of air passing over the rear lip of the partitioning divider, and escape as spent gases. from the after end of the pipe only after dissipating a substantial portion of combustion-induced heat content to the walls of the pipe.

The escape of the partially cooled gases on a horizontal plane adjacent the ground heats the surrounding air and causes it to rise into the trees. The trees of the orchard are heated by raising the temperature through radiation and connection from the wall of the pipe and the mixing of the exhaust gases and air at a relatively low level. This method or means of heating an orchard is substantially more efficient and effective than the low percentage of contained heat that can be captured from products of combustion in a vertical stack type of heater wherein the combustion gases are free to escape by ascension.

Sections of the orchard each have a battery of the heaters distributed through the same, and a source of supply 17 common to the burner nozzles in one or more of these sections supplies the carbonaceous fuel through a manifold system comprised of fairly short lengths of rigid conduit 18 connected by flexible hose 20. The conduit is arcuate in shape and each length carries and feeds a respective one of the nozzles 15, the nozzle being placed median to the arcuate span and extending upwardly from the back of the are on an axis sloped 45, or thereabouts, from the plane in which the conduit lies. The conduits are hung upon flanged horizontal brackets 21 which are spotwelded to the floor of the flue pipe at the front end thereof. Legs 22 are made integral with the flue pipe at each of the two ends thereof, elevating the pipe so that the curved lengths of conduit will hang free and be self-positioning in point of occupying a plane perpendicular to the ground.

A suitable nozzle construction is illustrated in FIG. 7 wherein an externally threaded mounting sleeve 25 is formed with a hollow core 24. The sleeve is closed at one end. The sleeve is secured in a tapped opening provided in the wall of the curved conduit 18. The core of the sleeve is threaded to receive an adjustable valve 26. The valve is formed at its inner end with a radial slot 27. The slot extends longitudinally of the valve approximately one-half of its length. A passage 28 is formed through the closed end of the sleeve. The passage serves two purposes. It is the means for the gas to pass to where it is ignitedi and also provides means for insertion of a small screw driver into the radial slot to adjust the valve. Adjustment is made with the nozzle withdrawn from the combustion throat. The operation of inserting the nozzle in the combustion throat is most easily performed by holding the two ends of the curved conduit and lowering the same onto the floor of the bracket while giving the conduit an approximate quarter-turn rolling motion.

In the embodiment illustrated in FIGS. 3 and 4, the flue pipe 10' is shown as having the shape of an inverted trough and may be placed either directly upon the ground, as shown, or upon a flat plate which rests upon the ground. While not indicated, it is desirable that the interior have its ingress end partitioned by means functionally similar to the divider 12. The nozzle 15' should desirably point upwardly at an angle of approximately 20 from the horizontal and in order that the burner conduit 18', when placed upon the ground, will assume and hold such a position as to give the nozzle said desired angle of inclination the conduit 18, like the sections of conduit 18, is formed to an arcuate shape. Such arcuate shape has a further advantage. When storing the composite manifold 18-20, or 1820, as the case may be, the same can be conveniently wrapped upon a spool 30 having its spooling surface formed to a diameter ap proximately twice the radius about which the arcs of the curved conduits 18 and 18' are developed. It becomes an easy matter to wind and unwind the composite manifold on and from the storage spool coincident with the act of rolling the spool between a row of trees in the orchard. A branch line or lines such as illustrated in FIG. would of course be disconnected from the main line and wound upon a separate spool.

It is thought that the invention and its advantages will be clearly understood from the foregoing description of the illustrated embodiments. Changes in the details of construction may be resorted to without departing from the spirit of the invention and it is accordingly my intention that no limitations be implied and that the hereto annexed claims be given the broadest interpretation to which the employed language fairly admits.

The embodiments of the invention in which an exclusive property or privilege is claimed are defined as follows:

1. A heater for an orchard comprising an elongated heating chamber of uniform cross-section throughout its length and so formed and mounted horizontally that the rear end is elevated no higher than the front end, the wall of the chamber at least along the sides and the top being imperforate and composed of a thin-gauge metal high in heat radiation and conductivity, said chamber having openings at the front and the back ends, a burner provided with a nozzle which is adapted to burn carbonaceous fuel and having said nozzle located within the chamber at the front end thereof and pointed inwardly so that products of combustion will travel from front to back substantially the full length of the chamber escaping through the back end opening and adjacent the ground only after transferring to the walls of the chamber a major portion of the entire heat of combustion, said .4 chamber having a front end portion thereof partitioned by an upwardly sloping party wall into an inwardly contracting upper throat and in inwardly expanding lower throat, the nozzle occupying said lower throat and having an upward slope approximating that of the party wall, and means for supplying said canbonaceous fuel to the burner.

2. A heater according to claim *1 in which the nozzle projects laterally from a supporting length of hollow conduit having an arcuate shape which is made functional to localize the conduit against liability of rolling with consequent derangement of the nozzles angularity.

3. A heater for an orchard comprising an elongated heating chamber so formed and mounted horizontally that the rear end is elevated no higher than the front end, the wall of the chamber at least along the sides and the top being imperforate and composed of a thin-gauge metal high in heat radiation and conductivity, said chamber having openings at the front and the back ends, a burner provided with a nozzle which is adapted to burn carbonaceous fuel and having said nozzle located within the chamber at the front end thereof and pointed inwardly so that products of combustion will travel from front to back substantially the full length of the chamber escaping through the back end opening and adjacent the ground only after transferring to the Walls of the chamber a major portion of the entire heat of combustion, said burner including a length of hollow conduit and having the nozzle projecting laterally from the conduit, the conduit and its nozzle being one of a plurality of like burners connected in a series system by sections of flexible hose, the hollow conduits having an arcuate shape developed on a radius approximating that of the spooling surface of a storage reel on which the series system of burners can be wrapped when the heaters are not in use, and means for supplying said carbonaceous fuel to the burner.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,245,663 11/1917 Black. 2,286,366 6/1942 Lea et al. 12.659.5 2,960,983 11/1960 Goss 126271.2 2,995,306 8/1961 Barker 12659.5 X 3,258,002 6/1966 Race 126-595 FOREIGN PATENTS 175,290 6/ 1935 Switzerland. 354,980 7/1961 Switzerland.

CHARLES I. MYHRE, Primary Examiner.

US. Cl. X.R. 126-91 

